Betty Rubble
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Betty Rubble (née McBricker/O'Shale), a fictional character in the popular television animated series The Flintstones, is the brunette wife of caveman Barney Rubble and adoptive mother of Bamm-Bamm Rubble. Her best friends were her next door neighbors, Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
Betty lived in the fictional prehistoric city of Bedrock, a world where dinosaurs coexisted with cavepeople and the cavepeople enjoyed "primitive" versions of modern conveniences such as telephones, automobiles and washing machines.
Betty's personality was based on that of Trixie Norton, wife of Ed Norton on the 1950s television series The Honeymooners. Much like Trixie spent a lot of her time socializing with Alice Kramden, Betty spent a lot of her time socializing with Wilma, and the two would often wind up working together to bail their husbands out of whatever scheme of Fred's had landed them in trouble.
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[edit] Character
Betty can be considered the least developed character in the show, as she is rarely seen not following the lead of either Barney or Wilma, the latter of which she often seems merely an echo of, generally. In spite of this, Betty is shown to have a distinctly emotional marriage with Barney, which more often included pet names and a more obvious affection, as opposed to the more dynamic and energic interaction between Fred and Wilma. The occasions when Betty leads the action are extremely scarce: one episode does center around her working undercover as a gentle old lady to raise money for a present for Barney, and on another occasion the plot for her and Wilma was led by her suspicions of Barney being involved with another woman (which turns out to be Fred in a disguise contrived in order to attend a ball game for free). This lack of protagonism (almost as background-set as supporting characters such as Pebbles, Bam-Bam or Dino, except for her more continuous presence) makes Betty less of a protagonist as is implied by the general concept of the show.
[edit] Biography
While the mid-1980s spinoff series The Flintstone Kids depicts Betty as a child, the series seems to be mostly apocryphal due to its presenting Betty as a childhood friend of Fred and Barney (the original series asserted that they first met as young adults). Still, the series' assertions that Betty was a childhood friend of Wilma and that her parents ran a convenience store may be taken as valid.
As young adults, Betty and Wilma were employed as cigarette girls/waitresses at a resort. There, they first met, and fell in love, with their future husbands, Fred and Barney (who were working there as bellhops). Eventually, Betty and Barney were married, presumably not long after Fred and Wilma.
Betty became a homemaker, keeping house with such prehistoric aids as a baby elephant vacuum cleaner, pelican washing machine, and so forth. Betty, much like Wilma, also enjoyed volunteering for various charitable/women's organizations in Bedrock, shopping, and (occasionally) getting to meet the celebrities of their world, including "Stony Curtis" and "Cary Granite". Betty at one time also had a job working for an "old lady" who turned out to be a young lady in disguise. This "old lady" was using Betty to pass phony money. It was the only episode actually centered around Betty.
Around the fourth season of the original series, Betty and Barney found an abandoned infant on their doorstep, by the name of "Bamm-Bamm." After a court battle (with the opposing side even hiring noted prehistoric lawyer "Perry Masonry"), the two were allowed to adopt Bamm-Bamm.
When Bamm-Bamm was a teenager, Betty gained employment as a reporter for one of Bedrock's newspapers, the Daily Granite, under the editorial guidance of Lou Granite (presumably a parody of The Mary Tyler Moore Show's Lou Grant). While employed there, she shared various adventures with prehistoric superhero Captain Caveman, who (in a secret identity) also worked for the newspaper.
Later still, after Bamm-Bamm grew up and left home, Betty started a successful catering business with her neighbor and friend Wilma, before becoming a grandmother to Bamm-Bamm's twin children, Chip and Roxy.
[edit] Trivia
- For years, Betty was the one Flintstones character that wasn't included in the Flintstones chewable children's vitamins. This was eventually rectified, but an e-mail trivia quiz that has been circulating for years on the Internet still makes this claim.
- A modern version of Betty (with the same name) is one of Dexter's mother's friends on Dexter's Laboratory, complete with living in a modern-day house.
- From 1960 through 1964, Betty was voiced by Bea Benaderet, who gave Betty her distinct high pitched giggle. During roughly that same time period, Benaderet appeared in front of the TV camera, as Kate on Petticoat Junction as well as Cousin Pearl Bodine in Season One of the highly popular 1960's sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies. Betty has also been voiced by Gerry Johnston, B.J. Ward and Grey DeLisle. In the 1994 film, Betty was played by Rosie O'Donnell, which was somewhat controversial with fans as the plus-sized O'Donnell did not match Betty's slender figure from the animated series, but reportedly won the role because she captured the high pitch laugh at her audition. Jane Krakowski's version of the character in the second movie was generally received somewhat better, though largely overlooked next to the film's poor overall reception.
- In a 1980's MTV poll for one of their game shows, Betty was named "The Hottest Flintstone".
- Betty's hairstyle seems to be inspired by Jacqueline Kennedy's famous flip hairstyle that was also worn by Mary Tyler Moore as the Flintstones series was airing. Betty's hair has also inspired a popular the dozens snap: "Your mama so old she used to cut Betty Rubble's hair."
- Several times in the original series, Betty made reference to a sister. She babysat her sister's baby on one episode of the series.
